The Edgars Elite

Mystery Writers of America (MWA) today announced the nominees for its 2023 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, “honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television published or produced in 2022.”

Best Novel:
• Devil House, by John Darnielle (MCD)
• Like a Sister, by Kellye Garrett (Mulholland)
• Gangland, by Chuck Hogan (Grand Central)
• The Devil Takes You Home, by Gabino Iglesias (Mulholland)
• Notes on an Execution, by Danya Kukafka (Morrow)
• The Maid, by Nita Prose (Ballantine)

Best First Novel by an American Author:
• Jackal, by Erin E. Adams (Bantam)
• Don’t Know Tough, by Eli Cranor (Soho Crime)
• Shutter, by Ramona Emerson (Soho Crime)
• More Than You’ll Ever Know, by Katie Gutierrez (Morrow)
• Portrait of a Thief, by Grace D. Li (Tiny Reparations)

Best Paperback Original:
• Quarry’s Blood, by Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime)
• On a Quiet Street, by Seraphina Nova Glass (Graydon House
• Or Else, by Joe Hart (Thomas & Mercer)
• Cleopatra’s Dagger, by Carole Lawrence (Thomas & Mercer)
• A Familiar Stranger, by A.R. Torre (Thomas & Mercer)

Best Fact Crime:
• Slenderman: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls, by Kathleen Hale (Grove Press)
• Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation, by Erika Krouse (Flatiron)
• Trailed: One Woman’s Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders, by Kathryn Miles (Algonquin)
• American Caliph: The True Story of a Muslim Mystic, a Hollywood Epic, and the 1977 Siege of Washington, D.C., by Shahan Mufti (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• American Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America’s Jack the Ripper, by Daniel Stashower (Minotaur)

Best Critical/Biographical:
• The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators, by Martin Edwards (Collins Crime Club)
• The Bloomsbury Handbook to Agatha Christie, by Mary Anna Evans and J.C. Bernthal (Bloomsbury Academic)
• The Crime World of Michael Connelly: A Study of His Works and Their Adaptations, by David Geherin (McFarland)
• The Woman Beyond the Attic: The V.C. Andrews Story, by Andrew Neiderman (Gallery)
• Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman, by Lucy Worsley (Pegasus Crime)

Best Short Story:
• “Red Flag,” by Gregory Fallis (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine [AHMM], March/April)
• “Backstory,” by Charles John Harper (AHMM, January/February)
• “Locked-In,” by William Burton McCormick (AHMM, January/February)
• “The Amnesty Box,” by Tim McLoughlin (from Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, by Tim McLoughlin; Akashic Press)
• “First You Dream, Then You Die,” by Donna Moore (from Black Is the Night, edited by Maxim Jakubowski; Titan)

Best Juvenile:
• The Swallowtail Legacy: Wreck at Ada’s Reef. by Michael D. Beil (Pixel+Ink)
• The Area 51 Files, by Julie Buxbaum (Delacorte Press)
• Aggie Morton Mystery Queen: The Seaside Corpse, by Marthe Jocelyn (Tundra)
• Adventures on Trains: Murder on the Safari Star, by M.G. Leonard and Sam Sedgman (Feiwel & Friends)
• Chester Keene Cracks the Code, by Kekla Magoon (Wendy Lamb)

Best Young Adult:
• Pretty Dead Queens, by Alexa Donne (Crown Books for Young Readers)
• Frightmares, by Eva V. Gibson (Underlined)
• The Black Girls Left Standing, by Juliana Goodman (Feiwel & Friends)
• The Red Palace, by June Hur (Feiwel & Friends)
• Lock the Doors, by Vincent Ralph (Sourcebooks Fire)

Best Television Episode Teleplay:
• “One Mighty and Strong,” Under the Banner of Heaven, written by Brandon Boyce (Hulu/FX)
• “Episode 1,” Magpie Murders, written by Anthony Horowitz (Masterpiece/PBS)
• “Episode 1,” Karen Pirie, written by Emer Kenny (BritBox)
• “When Harry Met Fergus,” Harry Wild, written by David Logan (Acorn TV)
• “The Reagan Way,” Blue Bloods, written by Siobhan Byrne O’Connor (CBS)
• “Eighteen Wheels a Predator,” Law & Order: SVU, written by Brianna Yellen and Monet Hurst-Mendoza (NBC Universal)

Robert L. Fish Memorial Award:
“Dogs in the Canyon,” by Mark Harrison (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, September/October)

The Simon & Schuster Mary Higgins Clark Award:
• Because I Could Not Stop for Death, by Amanda Flower (Berkley)
• The Woman in the Library, by Sulari Gentill (Poisoned Pen Press)
• The Disinvited Guest, by Carol Goodman (Morrow)
• A Dreadful Splendor, by B.R. Myers (Morrow)
• Never Name the Dead, by D.M. Rowell (Crooked Lane)

The G.P. Putnam’s Sons Sue Grafton Memorial Award:
• Secret Lives, by Mark de Castrique (Poisoned Pen Press)
• An Unforgiving Place, by Claire Kells (Crooked Lane)
• Hideout, by Louisa Luna (Doubleday)
• Behind the Lie, by Emilya Naymark (Crooked Lane)
• Secrets Typed in Blood, by Stephen Spotswood (Doubleday)

The Lilian Jackson Braun Memorial Award:
• The Shadow of Memory, by Connie Berry (Crooked Lane)
• Buried in a Good Book, by Tamara Berry (Poisoned Pen Press)
• Smile Beach Murder, by Alicia Bessette (Berkley)
• Desert Getaway, by Michael Craft (Brash)
• The Marlow Murder Club, by Robert Thorogood (Poisoned Pen Press)

SPECIAL AWARDS

MWA Grand Master:
Michael Connelly
Joanne Fluke

Raven Award:
Crime Writers of Color
Eddie Muller for Noir Alley and The Noir Foundation

Ellery Queen Award:
The Strand Magazine

Winners will be announced during the 77th annual Edgar Awards presentation, which is to be held on April 27 at the New York Marriott Marquis Times Square.